Knit fabric



March 14, 1961 T. WESTNIORELAND 2,974,508

KNIT FABRIC Filed May 9, 1958 INVENTOR flaw il's'illwmmd ATTORNEYS UniwW Pa n 0 KNIT FABRIC Twain Westmoreland, Mount Airy, N.C., assignor ofone-half to Fred Folger, Jr., Mount Airy, NC.

Filed May 9, 1958, Ser. No. 734,146

2 Claims. (Cl. 66-194) This invention relates to knit fabrics andarticles and to methods of knitting them, and particularly to knittingmethods for producing fabrics having unique ornamental design and tosuch fabrics and articles.

The general object of the present invention is the production of a knitfabric having a soft flulfy appearance quite different from conventionalknit fabrics capable of production in many design patterns.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a fabric of thisnature which will have bulk and thickness without great weight.

A further object is to provide a fabric of this kind which can bemanufactured on a conventional circular knitting machine.

A still further object is the production of such a fabric having somestretch characteristics.

It is also an object to produce a fabric particularly adapted to use inchildrens socks having long leg portions for rolling or folding toproduce a cuffed anklet, with the cuff being quite enlarged in thicknessover the foot portion of the sock.

Another object is to provide a method of producing a knit fabric havingthe above-described characteristics.

Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the followingdescription of one practical embodiment thereof, when taken inconjunction with the drawings which accompany, and form part of, thisspecification.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a childs sock incorporatingfabricembodying the principles of the present invention; and

Figure 2 is a diagram illustrating one stitch pattern that the fabricmay take, and the method by which the fabric is formed.

In general, the invention consists of a knit base fabric having bundlesof floated filler yarns over the back thereof secured to the base fabricat spaced points, with the selection of the points of securing thefloated yarns determining the design of the finished fabric, and themethod of knitting whereby such fabric may be produced.

Referring to the drawings in detail, there is shown in Figure 1 a childssock incorporating the new fabric in the leg portion. The sock includesa foot 1 of regular knit fabric and an elongated leg portion 2 of thenew fabric. The leg portion may be of any desired length, and is shownas folded, or rolled, several times to form a cuff 3 with the designside of the fabric exposed to provide a sock having different fabric inthe foot and cuff.

In making the fabric, a conventional circular knitting machine is used.This can be either the small diameter cylinder used for socks, or thelarger cylinder sweater machines. Yarn of any type may be used. Nylonstretch yarns have been used with excellent results, both as toflufliness of final appearance and because of the resiliency of thefinished fabric. This may be stretch yarns of the general type formed bytwisting, setting and untwisting 2 the filaments such, for example, asdisclosed in United States Patent No. 2,463,620.

In setting up the machine to knit a sock, a plurality of yarn ends, sayeight, are put on every other needle, and a single end is put on everyneedle of the bank. A few courses are knit with the one end knitting onall needles and forming a base fabric. During these few make up courses,the eight ends are knit on every other needle and floated behind theintervening needles. Due to the fact that the plurality of ends are kniton alternate needles, the floaters are short and have little chance toseparate. They appear as short lengths of soft thread overlying the basefabric. Thus, a band, or top, 4 is formed. This is merely one way inwhich the multi-end fabric may be begun.

After the make up courses, the machine can be set up to produce thefabric of the present invention. The basic arrangement will always besuch that the single end will be knit on all needles in all courses, andthe plurality of ends, which will be handled and knit in a bundle as asingle end, will be alternately knit and floated behind the interveningneedle, or needles, as the case may be simultaneously with the knittingof the base fabric. By selection of the needles on which the pluralityof ends will be knit in certain courses different design effects can beproduced. In all cases the yarns will be knit with light tension orwithout tension, and the floated yarns will pro duce loose, raised areasconsisting of bundles of free yarn lengths, such as shown at 5 inFigure 1. The size and location of these areas can be changed to producedifferent designs.

The arrangement of the stitches to produce the fabric is shown in Figure2. It will be understood that relatively few yarn ends have been shownto preserve clarity in the drawings. At the same time, the lengths ofthe floaters have been shown relatively short so that a large scaleshowing could be had.

The fabric shown in Figure 2 consists of a single yarn end 6 which hasbeen kniton all needles in all courses, and a plurality of yarn ends 7,which are used to create the design and give bulk to the fabric, andwhich are alternately knit and floated in accordance with therequirements of the design to be produced. For clarity, only two ends 7are shown. As illustrated, yarns 7 are knit in a two by four pattern, inwhich the yarns are knit in Wale 8, floated behind wale 9, knit in wale10, floated behind wales 11 and knit in Wale 12. This pattern iscontinued throughout a number of courses, three as shown. The patternthen shifts to position the short floaters centrally of the longerfloaters for a selected number of courses. The pattern can then beshifted back to its original form. This will produce the design shown inFigure ,1 which has the visual appearance of a basket weave.

The floaters will be sufliciently long so that the yarns of the severalends can separate to expand the bulk of the combined ends. Where theyare knit, of course, they will be drawn tightly together., When they arereleased, as when floating, they tend to fluff out due to the crowdedcondition caused by the use of so many ends and appear as a loose bundleof yarnson the face of the basic fabric.

Fabric knit in the above-described manner from stretch nylon yarns hasthe soft, flulfy appearance of small balls of yarn. This arises from therelaxed lengths of floated yarns which entirely cover the base fabric.The fabric has the light constrictive effect of stretch yarn, and whenmade into socks will hold its position on the leg without binding. Whenused in sweaters, etc. it will be shaperetaining and conform to the bodyof the wearer.

It will be obvious that many different designs are pos, sible whileretaining the basic stitch formation necessary to produce a fabrichaving free-floating yarns overlying a base fabric and attached to it atpreselected points. The same principle can be present with differentdesign effect by tucking and floating the design-forming yarns. Ofcourse, the fabric can be made on a rib machine by eliminating the dialneedles.

While in the above one practical embodiment of the invention has beendisclosed, it will be understood that the precise structural detailsshown and described are merely for purposes of illustration and theinvention may take other forms within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A knitted ornamental fabric comprising, a knit base fabric having aplurality of tuft-like yarn clusters arranged thereon in accordance witha predetermined design, said tuft-like yarn clusters each consisting ofa plurality of bundles of yarn knit at their ends into the base fabricin similar selected spaced wales-of successive courses so that thebundles are attached to the base fabric and the yarns of the bundles areconstricted at the points of attachment, with the bundles of yarnfloated over the intervening wales of the base fabric free ofconstriction between the points of attachment, and the yarn of the basefabric and the tuft-like clusters is nylon stretch yarn.

2. A knitted ornamental fabric comprising, a knit base fabric having aplurality of tuft-like yarn clusters arranged thereon in accordance witha predetermined design, said tuft-like yarn clusters each consisting ofa plurality of bundles of yarn knit at theirtends into the base fabricin similar selected spaced wales of successive courses so that thebundles are attached to the base fabric and the yarns of the bundles areconstricted at the points of attachment, with the bundles of yarnfloated over the intervening wales of the base fabric free ofconstriction between the points of attachment, and the points ofattachment of the plurality of courses of yarn bundles of one tuft-likeyarn cluster are in difierent wales of the base fabric from the pointsof attachment of yarn bundles making up the tuftlike yarn clusters onthe next succeeding plurality of courses of the basefabn'c to provide adesign of staggered clusters.

References Cited in the file of this patent I UNITED STATES PATENTS1,500,164 Taubel July 8, 1924 2,279,919 Fleisher Apr. 14, 1942 2,661,612Crawford Dec. 8, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 475,760 Great Britain Nov. 25,1937

